About the job

Job summary

About us 

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is the department for economic growth. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate develops and operates tools and services to support businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country.

Job description

Join our Data Infrastructure team as a Head of Data Analysis and help us transform DBT into an insight-driven organisation that tells compelling stories with its data. You will be leading on work backed by our ground-breaking data and insight platform, Data Workspace. The service gives our staff access to a catalogue of key trade data and a suite of powerful tools with which to analyse and explore it.

Data Analysts in the department use high quality datasets held inside and outside DBT including data and management information, commercial and business data. They analyse and facilitate the analysis of these datasets, leading on projects to help DBT get insight from them. As a Head of Profession for Data Analysis you will be responsible for ensuring that Data Analysts are supported and their skills put to best use. 

Main responsibilities 

You will be:

• Line manage Senior Data Analysts and indirectly all other members of the profession to ensure they are supported to deliver their best work.
• Ensure the continuous learning and advancement of capabilities in the profession.
• Identify opportunities for helping achieve the department’s objectives by deploying data analysis capabilities.
• Support members of the profession through advanced data skills, and provide expert advice to colleagues across Digital, Data & Technology portfolios.
• Resource the data analysis needs of the department by engaging with portfolios to prioritise asks, recruiting new members of the profession and improving the operating model for the profession.
• Collaborate with other members of Data Infrastructure to shape the future of the data platform so it can support impactful and cutting-edge applications of data analysis.
• Champion the democratisation of data analysis by contributing to upskilling other colleagues and enabling self-serve analysis work.
• Strengthen the cross-government community for data analysis.

Person specification

It is essential that you have:

• Experience of leading and line-managing data specialists and supporting them towards achieving a significant impact.
• Excellent engagement and communication skills, demonstrated by ability manage relationships and communicate accurate information to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A good understanding, and experience, of data visualisation; you should understand how to tell compelling and actionable stories that are relevant to business goals. This will include experience with a dashboarding/BI tool (for example Tableau, Power BI, AWS QuickSight, Google Data Studio, or others) and use of a visualisation library (for example Shiny or Streamlit).
• Experience using SQL as well as either Python or R to bring data together from different sources and get them ready for analysis using cleaning and preparation techniques.
• Understanding of the ethical considerations of potential data analysis approaches, and the legislation applicable in this area. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA).

 It is desirable that you have:

• Knowledge of other professions in Digital, Data & Technology and how they can work together in an agile environment.
• Awareness of existing Government frameworks, and any other relevant frameworks. This includes the GDS Service Standard and the Aqua Book.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a two page CV and complete a 750 word personal statement outlining how you meet the essential skills and experience listed above. You can use bullet points and subheadings if you prefer. 

Sift will be from week commencing 24/07/2024

Interviews will be from week commencing 05/08/2024 

Please note these dates are indicative and may be subject to change. 

If there is a high volume of applications, we will sift looking at your personal statement only. You may then be progressed to full sift or straight to interview.  

How we interview 

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. These are role specific and in line with the DDaT Capability Framework. 

Technical Skills

• Communication
• Visualisation
• Statistical methods and data analysis
• IT and mathematics (to cover SQL and programming)
• Project management
• Data modelling, cleaning and enrichment

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

You will also be asked to deliver a presentation and will be informed on the topic following the sift. 

How we offer 

Offers will be made in merit order based on location preferences. If you pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring you will be held on a 12-month reserve list in case a role becomes available. If you are judged a near miss at interview, you may be offered a post at the grade below the one you applied for. 

This role requires SC clearance. DBT’s requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. Failure to meet this requirement will result in your application being rejected and your offer will be withdrawn.  Checks will also be made against: 

• departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records) 
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records 
• your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency 
• security services record 
• location details 

More about us 

This role can only be worked from within the UK, not overseas. If you are based in London, you will receive London weighting. DBT employees work in a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office on average. 

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DBT, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered. You can find out more about our office locations, how we calculate salaries, our diversity statement and reasonable adjustments, the Recruitment Principles, the Civil Service code and our complaints procedure on our website. Find out more about life at DBT, our benefits and meet the team by watching our video or reading our blog!  

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.